Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History

In the last decade of the twentieth century, newly opened classified archives revealed a series of “sacred secrets” that survivors of the Cold War had sworn to carry to their graves. These revelations have challenged our understanding of significant historical events. In Sacred Secrets, Jerrold and Leona Schecter add documents recently obtained in Russia and information from original interviews to cast new light on the reasons for the attack on Pearl Harbor, atomic espionage, Alger Hiss, McCarthyism, and the Rosenberg case, among others. The Schecters also reveal details of their own exposure to the world of sacred secrets.

From Sacred Secrets, the reader emerges with a startling awareness of the profound influence that an aggressive Soviet intelligence service exerted on U.S. domestic and foreign policy. We now know, for example, that Harry Dexter White, the chief architect of the U.S. economic policy that proved so provocative to Japan and contributed to its decision to attack Pearl Harbor, was a Soviet intelligence asset committed to deflecting Japan’s aggressive aims away from the Soviet Union. The Schecters provide the missing pieces of historical puzzles, demonstrate the importance of long-forgotten memoirs, rehabilitate reputations, and condemn others, rewriting recent U.S. history.